Pheasants: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan ... - IUCN

Box 2.5 Criteria for Lower Risk (LR)
A taxon is Lower Risk when it has been evaluated, but does not satisfy the criteria for any of the categories Critically
Endangered, Endangered, or Vulnerable. Taxa included in the Lower Risk category can be separated into three
subcategories:
1. Conservation Dependent (cd).
Taxa which are the focus of a continuing taxon-specific or habitat-specific conservation programme targeted towards
the taxon in question, the cessation of which would result in the taxon qualifying for one of the threatened categories
above within a period of five years.
2. Near Threatened (nt).
Taxa which do not qualify for Conservation Dependent, but which are close to qualifying for Vulnerable.
3. Least Concern (lc).
Taxa which do not qualify for Conservation Dependent or Near Threatened.
2.5 Data Deficient species
One pheasant species meets criteria sufficient for
classification as Data Deficient, owing to increasing
uncertainty over its taxonomic status.
Imperial pheasant
(Lophura imperialis)
Distribution: central Vietnam
Threat status/criteria: Data Deficient
Priority conservation action: urgent investigation of
taxonomic status
Box 2.6 Criteria for Data Deficient (DD)
A taxon is Data Deficient when there is inadequate
information to make a direct or indirect assessment of its
risk of extinction based on its distribution and/or population
status. A taxon in this category may be well studied and its
biology well known, but appropriate data on abundance
and/or distribution are lacking. Data Deficient is, therefore,
not a category of threat or Lower Risk. Listing of taxa in this
category indicates that more information is required and
acknowledges the possibility that future research will show
that threatened classification is appropriate. It is important
to make positive use of whatever data are available. In
many cases, great care should be exercised in choosing
between DD and threatened status. If the range of a taxon
is suspected to be relatively circumscribed, or if a
considerable period of time has elapsed since the last
record of the taxon, threatened status may well be justified.
There is uncertainty over the
taxonomic status of the
Imperial pheasant. It is under
extreme pressure from habitat
loss, and is now known only
from one site in Vietnam.
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